A user interface provided in an electronic device with a touch screen, functions as a medium of interaction between a user and the electronic device.
A user may interact with the electronic device by touching one or more soft keys, menus and shortcut icons of various application programs, then the electronic device detects and responds to the user's touch through a user interface. For example, when the user wishes to use a specific application program, he can touch an icon corresponding to the application program on the user interface. After detecting the touch, the electronic device will start the corresponding application program.
The usage of application programs has become increasingly prevalent with the growth of popularity in touch screen electronic devices. However, limited by the size of the touch screen, and with the expansion in number and variety of application programs, the user interface may have to divide into multiple pages for display when too many application programs are needed to be displayed. In one scenario where an icon corresponding to the application program which the user wishes to use is not displayed on the current page, the user may slide on the touch screen to search for the icon. After detecting the sliding touch, the electronic device displays the contents of the next page on the user interface according to the direction of the sliding touch, then the user can begin to look for the icon. The user will need to repeat this process until he finds the specific icon that he wishes to use.
One problem associated with managing user interfaces with a large collection of application programs is the prolongation and delay in time to search for a specific application. A user often needs to use different types of application programs in different situations. With a large number of application programs on multiple display pages, the user may have to spend a very long time to look for the icon of the specific application program that he wanted to use on the user interface.